If RS is working and you are happy with it, I'd stick with it but move at a faster pace. Early elementary, I have always done Singapore math and Miquon. I agree with others that Beast Academy might be a good fit when a little older.

I've never gotten a permission form, but I agree with the rest. Immediately after the class is over, a transcript of the entire class is available on the AoPS site. This is helpful if some topic moves too fast or if you miss a class. Also, you have until the third class starts to drop for a full refund. Hopefully you won't need the option, but it's nice to know it's out there.

HST has great customer service. They've sent me some of their guides and I've bought some for about $1. Just email them and ask. I did a lot of conceptual physics labs that are free on the Arbor Science site here: http://www.arborsci.com/conceptual-physics-supplementary-labs Some of the labs are not practical, but I found them a great starting place for physics labs. I think I bought all my supplies from HST.

The shapes chapter is a very cool chapter on THINKING about shapes. It teaches some logic not found elsewhere. The skip counting chapter is also very good. I don't remember the area and perimeter chapter being way better than SM, but I'm about to get to it with my second child. You could certainly skip 3A, but it is a great book.

We've done part of Professor Carol's Discovering Music and have really enjoyed it. Well - at least mom enjoys it and the boys tolerate it as they'd rather be doing math or computer programming.

I answered in the linked thread.

We are enjoying Brave Writer classes.

Of the high school classes, my oldest son has done both Kidswriter Int. and Expository Essay. Both come with a grade and transcript saying each is worth 1/4 credit. Both classes were very good. KWI does a lot of foundational work to make writing better without doing any single big projects or essays. EE teaches kids how to write an essay and two complete essays are done over the class. Brave Writer's Help for High School is basically the pdf copy of these two classes together. It is written to the student and intended to be done over about 12 weeks. I bought the pdf first thinking that I'd teach it myself. In another family, I think this could easily be done. The combination of me being a math person and not a writer as well as my oldest being very resistant to writing made me decide to put him in the online class instead (and I've very glad I did). His writing improved tremendously though it is still painful to get writing out of him. I then thought maybe I could use the pdf to teach my second. He can do the exercises, but I'm missing the wonderful feedback from the teachers and "I" can't tell him how to improve his writing. He will be taking KWI this spring. Our family has taken several family classes this spring - Groovey Grammar and Playing with Poetry. We plan on taking the family Shakespeare class this spring. While these classes aren't geared toward high school specifically, my high schooler has learned a lot and we've had fun learning as a family. Through many different things we done with Brave Writer, I've become convinced that copywork and dictation are the best way for me to teach my (younger) kids grammar. As far as literature, we are going to try out Boomerang Book Club for one or two months this spring and may utilize it more next year. In the past my son did Center for Literature's online lit class and this year we are mostly doing our own literature. I've used the Arrow for my younger kids and while it looked "easy" at first, I'm finding they are learning a lot through it. Brave Writer does have several specific classes that read specific novels and write literary essays after kids learn how to write essays. They also offer a high school poetry class and other advanced writing classes, but they are not offered year round.

I'm more and more embracing Bravewriter as being the way to teach my high schooler as well as younger kids.

My oldest found AoPS Geometry MUCH easier than algebra, but that is because that is how he thinks. My second finds the geometry and algebra about equally hard. Early on in the book, there is not much that has to do with quadratics. My oldest just skipped a couple of problems along the way (with me showing him how to do the quadratics) until he got to factoring quadratics.

My oldest loved this book. We did not do it as the online class. AoPS online classes tend to move quickly and we like to go at our own pace. If you go at your own pace you can go as quickly or slowly as you want. We did it as a mix with all four AoPS intro books and just worked through a chapter of every book once per month. It was a slower pace for C&P, but overall a rapid pace of math.

I think you need to challenge your students without overwhelming them. In the process of being challenged, they will learn to step up their study skills, output, time management, etc. "I" don't put a time limit on this. My high schooler can whip out high level math classes in short amounts of time. He shouldn't be made to do more work just because he's quick. On the other hand, he takes about 3x as long as average for his civics class. He's learning persistence and time management in a class that he enjoys, but is not quick at.

I'd teach him at his level. Trying to teach at a higher level won't result in any retention so I don't see a point in doing so.

What's his plan for next year? Does he need biology? Is he headed toward college or a different path. A college prep curriculum is going to be different than one that is preparing him for the workforce, etc. Ultimately I would tend to pick whatever route I think "best" for him and not worry about levels etc. He's either going to be ready for college/life or he's not, and it probably won't have much to do with what he does for biology.

Bummer, I hadn't even thought about the implications of dual enrollment - which we are considering.

We've done literature (without writing) through Center for Lit and have been very pleased. We've also done several Brave Writer courses.

I'm not sure it matters for either college board or college if you stay with the same person or not. I'd do what you think is best for your child. I don't want to switch, but I'm in the situation that I can't get my psych to return calls or emails and therefore can't even schedule an appointment. I think she may have taken leave, but her answering machine still says she'll call you right back. Does anyone know how current testing needs to be before college? I'm thinking within two years of starting college, but I'm not sure.

I use ETC as a supplement to Barton for my struggling reader. I would not use it as my primary source of teaching reading.

Does the school offer studies your student is interested in? Is your student one that thrives by being challenged by better students or not? What is the financial reality of going somewhere else - I wouldn't go into a bunch of debt.

I've done all of BA that's published so far and I've got to say I love it. I'm a math-inclined engineer and my oldest is a math geek. I have two kids that have gone through SM and into AoPS and I am using BA (alongside SM) for my younger two. I agree that certain topics may seem overly complicated such as the perfect squares chapter. However, IF kids can learn how perfect squares work this way then they are a step ahead in thinking about how algebra works. Of course you can just multiply it out by hand, but if you understand the theory of numbers then it makes math more understandable, easier, and certainly more elegant. I thought the distributive properties chapter was in a great place in the sequence. I also really like that BA introduces topics that most kids either get much later or never at an elementary level. For someone who is looking at BA from the outside, I can see where they might think a lot of it is useless. However, in the process of teaching my kids, I don't think any of it is useless and I'm super-excited that it is available for my younger kids. My oldest math-loving kid says BA is "epic".

No problem. Let anything slide that you need to let go. This is a season of life and things will move on. My daughter has had three surgeries with casts and splints on her arm this past year so it's been interesting for us.

I think Bravewriter does copywork and dictation, but at a gentler pace and approach. I haven't used WWE, but I've looked at it. I haven't used the Wand, but I've used the Arrow and the older one (I can't remember the name). There are samples online that you might want to look at. I've meandered down various paths through the years, but I have come back to doing it the Bravewriter way - it fits us well. Currentlly my second grader severely dyslexic and learning to read so I'm not very far into teaching him copywork, etc.

I sat with my son during the first class just so he knew what was going on technically. If there's ever a question of what was covered in class, a full transcript of the class is posted soon after the class is over. I would make sure he got on okay the next few times and then I just left him on his own.

Love it.

I'd get evaluated starting with a neuropsych eval for dyslexia. This won't solve the problem, but may give you a lot of answers. Vision issues mimik dyslexia and would be helped by vision therapy. Seek out a good doc and get an opinion. I use Barton Reading and Spelling with my dyslexics. Vision therapy has also helped with convergence insufficiency and other problems, but does not address the underlying phonological processing problems.